(AFDC) Program That Had Been in Existence for 60 Years
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1 A Brief History of the AFDC Program On August 22, 1996 President Clinton signed into law the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996 (Public Law 104–193). PRWORA replaced the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program that had been in existence for 60 years. As a baseline for understanding the impacts of the new law, this report summarizes data on the AFDC program as it existed prior to this new legislation. Origins of the AFDC Program In the face of widespread hardship and the exhaustion of public and private resources for the poor during the Depression, Congress passed the 1935 Social Security Act. What we know as Social Security today was only one of several programs that Congress included in the Act. The Act also included funds for the States to help destitute elderly, blind, and children. Many but by no means all of the states already had such programs. These state programs were often the descendants of the “outdoor” relief as contrasted with “indoor” or poor house relief that existed from Colonial times. For example, by 1931, 200,000 children in every state except Georgia and South Carolina lived in homes supported in part by mothers’ pensions. In most instances, assistance was restricted to destitute widows. (Katz, p. 133.) The states almost always placed the duty to provide relief on local governments with the funding to come from local property taxes. Federal Assistance to States The provisions to help states provide support for children was contained in Title IV of the Act, which took up only three pages of text. Participation by any state was voluntary. To participate in the program, states had to submit a plan for the approval of federal administrators. The Social Security Act stipulated certain elements of the plan as conditions for the receipt of assistance. The conditions were at first very minimal. State and local treasuries were stretched so thin by the Depression that few governors or legislatures hesitated to propose a plan. However, in 1939 eight states – Connecticut, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, Nevada, South Dakota, Texas – and the territory of Alaska still had no Aid to Dependent Children program (Coll, p. 104). Aid to Families with Dependent Children: The Baseline Instead of appropriating a fixed amount of money for each year to be divided among the states, Congress authorized reimbursement of a certain portion of state expenditures without any ceiling on the total amount. The Act authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to reimburse each state with an approved plan for one-third of its benefit payments, up to a maximum federal payment of $6 per month for the first child plus $4 for each additional child. The Act appropriated an initial $24,750,000 and “a sum sufficient to carry out the purposes of this title” for subsequent years. A variety of changes to the formula were made over the years, but the basic structure of an open- ended appropriation continued until the passage of the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families Act (TANF) in August 1996. Persons Covered The original title of the program was Aid to Dependent Children. The stated purpose of Title IV was to provide financial assistance to needy dependent children. The federal program made no provision for assisting a parent or other relative in the household although it did specify that the child must live with a parent or other close relatives to be eligible for federal aid. It was not until 1950 that the federal government began to share in the maintenance costs of a caretaker relative. Congress later allowed states to claim federal reimbursement for assisting other persons under the AFDC program, for example- • the child of an unemployed parent and that parent (AFDC-Unemployed Parent), effective in 1961; • a second parent in a family with an incapacitated or unemployed parent was allowed effective in 1962 and the name of the program was changed to Aid to Families with Dependent Children; • "any other individual" in the home deemed essential to the child, known as the "essential person" option, effective in 1968; and • an unborn child, in last trimester of mother's pregnancy, effective in 1981. There were optional provisions that the states could choose to adopt or not depending on their own political and policy decisions. A state might choose to participate in the Unemployed Parent program for several years and then decide to reverse that decision. For example, in 1978 twenty-eight states participated in the AFDC-UP program and in 1982 that number had dropped to twenty-three states. Eventually the Federal government made it mandatory that states provide benefits to- • the second parent in families with an incapacitated or unemployed parent, effective in 1984 (previously, some states did not cover the spouse of an 4 Brief History incapacitated or unemployed parent); • the families of unemployed parents, effective in October 1990. (States that previously did not offer AFDC-UP were allowed to limit benefits to 6 months yearly.) Administration The Federal government was empowered to make rules for the “proper and efficient administration” of the program. Initially, there were very few requirements imposed on the states regarding the administration of the program. The original “rules” took the form of “State Letters” issued by the Social Security Board. These directives and interpretations of the Act were organized and developed into a Handbook of Public Assistance Administration in 1945. It was not until 1967 that this system was replaced with a set of formal rules published in the Code of Federal Regulations. The state was required to designate a single agency to be responsible for the administration (or supervision, if locally administered) of the program. The Act required that the state’s program be available in all parts of the state and that the state’s rules be consistently applied. This meant that local governments, which often continued to have a considerable financial stake in the program, could not impose local rules on applicants and recipients. States were permitted to continue to impose their own residency and citizenship requirements. In 1950 Congress required states to provide an opportunity for anyone to apply for aid, to furnish aid with reasonable promptness to all eligible persons, and to provide the opportunity for a “fair hearing” to those denied assistance or not given a response within a reasonable period of time. Eligibility and Benefits States were required to establish a standard of need, limitations on the possession of personal or real property, rules for the treatment of any earned or unearned income, and a payment standard. In the original proposed legislation, Congress was asked to include a provision requiring states to pay “a reasonable subsistence compatible with decency and health.” Congress refused to accept this proposal, and instead inserted the clause “as far as practicable under the conditions in such State.” (Derthick, p. 44-45.) As a result, the amounts diverged over time and eventually became unrelated to each other. In 1967 states were required to update their AFDC cost standards by July 1, 1969, but not to increase their payments. The standard of need was the maximum amount of income allowed for a family to be considered “needy.” In the early years the need standard and the payment standard were identical in many states. However, over time more states did not provide a payment equal to their need standard and after 1981 this became the common practice. In recent years the standard of need was almost always considerably higher than the amount actually provided in assistance for any given family size. For example, in July 1994 the average of the states’ need standards, weighted according the share of the total caseload, 5 Aid to Families with Dependent Children: The Baseline was $688 per month. However, the average payment standard was $420 per month. The standard of need was usually based on some estimate of the minimum amount necessary for subsistence. The payment standard was based on whatever funds the state legislature appropriated. Age of Eligible Child All children through the age of 15 were eligible for assistance. Congress gave states the option of aiding children older than 15 as follows: children aged 16 and 17 if regularly attending school, effective in 1940; students aged 18-20 in high school or a course of vocational or technical training, 1964; and students aged 18-20 in college or university, 1965. However, in 1981, Congress ended a child's eligibility on his 18th birthday or at state option, if he were still in high school, on his 19th birthday. Income of Family Members In 1939 states were required in determining need, to consider any other income and resources available to the applicant. In 1981, Congress required states to treat a portion of the income of an AFDC child's stepparent (living in the same home) as available to the child. Effective in 1984, Congress required that any parent and brother or sister of a needy child who lived in his home (except for Supplemental Security Income recipients) must be included in the AFDC assistance unit of the child and, thus be included in calculating the family’s needs, income and resources. Work Requirements and Incentives In 1961 as part of the inclusion of unemployed parents in the program, states were required to deny assistance to families if the unemployed parent refused to accept work without “good cause.” In 1962 Congress authorized federal funds to establish Community Work and Training (CWT) programs for federally-aided recipients age 18 and over. CWT programs were to pay wages equal to the prevailing rates in the community for same type of work and to ensure that appropriate standards of health and safety were observed.